Laser Patterning of Porous Support Membranes to Enhance the Effective Surface Area of Thin-Film Composite-Facilitated Transport Membranes for CO Separation.

Although thin-film composite membranes have achieved great success in CO separation, further improvements in the CO permeance are required to reduce the size and cost of the CO separation process. Herein, we report the fabrication of composite membranes with high CO permeability using a laser-patterned porous membrane as the support membrane. High-aspect-ratio micropatterns with well-defined micropores on their surface were carved on microporous polymer supports by a direct laser writing process using a short-pulsed laser.

Assembly of Defect-Free Microgel Nanomembranes for CO Separation.

The development of robust and thin CO separation membranes that allow fast and selective permeation of CO will be crucial for rebalancing the global carbon cycle. Hydrogels are attractive membrane materials because of their tunable chemical properties and exceptionally high diffusion coefficients for solutes. However, their fragility prevents the fabrication of thin defect-free membranes suitable for gas separation.